C'sted, VI Steeple Bldg. Views

i'm pretty prejudiced when it comes to St. Croix and its historical beauty compared with other islands through out the Caribbean. We were very fortunate to have the  Danes layout Fredericksted and Christiansted and throughout our history to have concerned citizens that fought to preserve and renovate important historical structures.

In 1952 The Christiansted National Historic Site was created to preserve the Fort, Customs House, Steeple Building, Danish West India and Guinea Company Bldg., and Government House. These structures located within walking distance of each other have been re-done many times since their original construction in the 1700's and are a small representation of how the Danish economy churned from then until they sold the islands to the United States in 1917.

Today some of these buildings are getting a lot of loving TLC from contractors hired to do some needed renovations. After too many hurricanes passing through the buildings were looking stressed and the Park Service put in their requests to the Feds for funds to do some much needed repair on all the buildings.

The Customs House is the biggest part of the project, its getting rotten wood that had been impacted by water and termites replaced and or repaired. Park Service personnel and government architects have put a lot of effort into maintaining the integrity and antiquity of
all the buildings even down to reproducing the lime plaster that goes on the outside of the structures.

They are repairing windows and doors, the gallery roof, replacing shingles, repainting and putting the weather vane back on top of the Steeple Building. The Scale House, the bathrooms and both of the Guniea House kitchens are getting attention. The Fort was tended to first and the project overall is scheduled to be complete sometime in April.

But the reason i wanted to write this piece is more about the views that can be had from the top of the Steeple Building. Christiansted is beautiful, people from all over the world photograph it from all angles and lighting conditions. It is a never ending study in architectural beauty across all the ages.

Access to the tippy top of the Steeple Building has been cut off for a long long time. When i heard they were doing repairs up there i asked if someone could take a camera along and snap a picture out of all eight sides.
Since access is limited and timing for the lighting was not going to happen i had to be satisfied with what ever results were obtained. The day of the shoot it was cloudy but i think St. Croix shines even on a cloudy day.

Enjoy the spectacular views from a building your government is renovating because it wouldn't be happening without them!